Page 8 of 8 FirstFirst ... 678
Results 71 to 77 of 77

Thread: Dontae Rashawn Morris - Florida Death Row

  1. #71
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2015
    Location
    New Jersey, unfortunately
    Posts
    4,382
    Death sentence vacated today because of Hurst by the Florida Supreme Court.

    http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/d.../sc15-2395.pdf
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  2. #72
    Senior Member CnCP Addict one_two_bomb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Location
    Detroit MI
    Posts
    965
    Only his third death sentence was reversed correct? The ju4y who convicted him of murdering the 2 officers was unanimous in recommending death and that conviction and sentence was upheld last year. So this guy should still be on death row

  3. #73
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Location
    Pennsylvania
    Posts
    4,795
    Yeah its only for the third sentence he's still on death row.

  4. #74
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Location
    FRANCE
    Posts
    3,073
    Florida Supreme Court overturns one of Dontae Morris’s death sentences

    By Josh Rojas
    Bay News 9

    TAMPA -- The Florida Supreme Court overturned Dontae Morris’ death sentence on Thursday for the murder of Derek Anderson because the jury that sentenced him did not vote unanimously for the death penalty.

    The jury in that case voted 10 to 2 for the death sentence. Morris shot and killed Anderson, 21, outside his mother’s Tampa apartment back in May of 2010.

    Morris is already facing two death sentences for murdering Tampa Police officers David Curtis and Jeffrey Kocab in June of 2010. The jury was unanimous in that case and last year the court upheld those sentences.

    Defense attorney Kevin Hayslett, who’s not connected to the case, said he believes the Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office may seek a new death sentence for Morris as a matter of principle.

    “For the law enforcement community, for the prosecutor’s office, this case is personal,” he said. “You can only kill a person once. However… if there’s ever a case where they say we don’t care about the money, we care about the principle, this is that case.”

    Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office communications director Rena Frazier said they need to “make an analysis” before deciding whether to seek a new death sentence for Morris. Hayslett said on average it takes about 15 to 20 years before a defendant is executed after being sentenced to death.

    http://www.baynews9.com/content/news...reme_cour.html

  5. #75
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Location
    Pennsylvania
    Posts
    4,795
    Condemned to death, Tampa cop killer returns to court seeking new trial

    By Dan Sullivan
    The Tampa Bay Times

    TAMPA — Almost a decade ago, two Tampa police officers were murdered.

    A city grieved. A legion of cops hunted a killer and demanded justice. A jury would later see video of the officers shot in the head as they attempted to arrest a man during a traffic stop. The same panel decided the killer should be executed.

    This month, a crack opened on the past and death row inmate Dontae Morris returned to the Hillsborough County Jail just before noon on Aug. 1. He brought with him hopes of a new trial in the slaying of Officers David Curtis and Jeffrey Kocab.

    Lawyers for Morris are set to present evidence in a Tampa courtroom this week as they try to persuade a judge that his first trial was not a fair one.

    They say a key witness against Morris lied, that the jury was tainted by video images of the aftermath of the shootings, and that the trial attorneys failed to present evidence concerning Morris’ mental state.

    The effort is a long shot. The state’s highest court has previously upheld Morris’s convictions and death sentences. But the hearing will feature some new arguments and testimony that might look like a trial.

    In addition to the officer killings, Morris was convicted in the separate murders a few weeks earlier of Rodney Jones and Derek Anderson.

    He received a life sentence for killing Jones, and a third death sentence in Anderson’s murder. The sentence in the Anderson case was later overturned because the jury was not unanimous in its recommendation for capital punishment. Prosecutors have not said whether they will seek a new death sentence in the case.

    Morris, now 33, was the subject of the largest manhunt in Tampa history in the four days that followed the June 29, 2010, slayings of Officers Curtis and Kocab.

    At 2:13 a.m. that day, Curtis stopped a red Toyota Camry that had no license tag. The car pulled over on the southbound side of 50th Street, just north of Interstate 4. The driver was Cortnee Brantley. In the passenger seat was Morris.

    The dashboard camera in Curtis’ patrol car captured the officer’s brief conversation with the pair. When asked his name, the passenger could be heard saying, “Morris … Dontae … D-O-N-T-A-E … M-O-R-R-I-S.”

    Curtis scribbled down the name and Morris’ birth date on a notepad, and returned to his car. When he ran the name through a police database, he discovered Morris had an active warrant for writing bad checks.

    He called for backup. Kocab arrived. The two officers walked to the car’s passenger side. Curtis told Morris he had a warrant and asked him to step out. Morris rose, as though he was going to comply. But he quickly drew a gun and shot both officers.

    He then ran off. Brantley sped away.

    The officers lay dying before passersby saw them a few minutes later and dialed 911. Both men were declared dead at Tampa General Hospital.

    A confidential informer later brought Morris to a South Tampa law office, where he was delivered to police in exchange for $90,000 in reward money.

    Key to the state’s case was the testimony of Ashley Price, a one-time girlfriend of Morris who testified that Morris spoke with her in the hours after the shootings and confessed to killing both officers.

    But lawyers for the office of the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, a state agency that represents death row inmates, say they have two witnesses who can testify that Price lied. They argue that she was pressured to cooperate with police and prosecutors to secure a conviction.

    The lawyers have also challenged the decision to let jurors see portions of dashboard camera video in which panicked officers try to revive their colleagues. And they question Morris’ death sentences, arguing that his trial lawyers failed to adequately probe his background and upbringing.

    What’s more, the new appeal rehashes findings from psychological experts that were presented to a judge but not the jury. These experts found that Morris has a below-average IQ and “borderline intellectual functioning."

    New evidence includes the results of brain scans Morris underwent while on death row. The exams revealed signs that he may have suffered a brain injury, according to his appellate attorneys.

    “The flaws in the system which sentenced Mr. Morris to death are many,” they wrote in a court paper. “These errors cannot be harmless. The results of the trial and sentencing are not reliable.”

    https://www.tampabay.com/news/hillsb...ing-new-trial/
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  6. #76
    Senior Member CnCP Addict
    Join Date
    Feb 2021
    Posts
    702
    Dontae Morris to get new life sentence in third Tampa murder

    By Dan Sullivan
    The Tampa Bay Times

    TAMPA — Dontae Morris will be sentenced to life in prison for the 2010 murder of Derek Anderson, but will remain on death row for killing two Tampa police officers.

    In court Friday, Assistant State Attorney Scott Harmon announced that the state will allow Morris to be re-sentenced to life in prison for the Anderson murder. The move comes after a recent Florida Supreme Court decision which concluded that death sentences cannot be reinstated in cases where a jury was not unanimous.

    A jury voted 10-2 in favor of the death penalty for Morris in his 2015 trial for the Anderson murder. A separate jury in 2014 voted 12-0 to give Morris death for killing Officers David Curtis and Jeffrey Kocab.

    Anderson, 21, was shot in the back on May 18, 2010, outside his mother’s east Tampa apartment. He was returning home after doing laundry at a friend’s house and carried a load of clean clothing in a backpack.

    At trial, the state said that Morris killed Anderson after the two men had argued earlier that day about Anderson selling marijuana on what Morris considered to be his turf.

    The murder occurred more than a month before Morris killed Curtis and Kocab.

    The officers had stopped a car in which Morris was a passenger early on the morning of June 29, 2010. They discovered Morris had a warrant. When they moved to arrest him, Morris pulled a gun and shot both officers in their heads. He disappeared into a nearby neighborhood and touched off the largest manhunt in Tampa history. He was arrested a few days later.

    At the time of Morris’ trials, state law allowed a judge to impose a death sentence based on a recommendation from a bare majority of jurors.

    But in 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court found the state’s death penalty law to be unconstitutional. The state later rewrote the law, making unanimous juries the rule going forward.

    For defendants already on death row, prosecutors have had to decide whether to pursue a new death sentence with a new jury. In some cases, they opted to have them re-sentenced to life. A number of other local death row cases await new sentencing hearings.

    Morris will need to return to court to be re-sentenced to life for the Anderson murder, though the hearing may be conducted by video conference from the prison where he resides.

    Morris is also serving a life sentence for the May 31, 2010, murder of Rodney Jones, who was robbed and shot outside a Tampa nightclub.

    The Florida Supreme Court previously affirmed Morris’ death sentence for killing the officers. But a second appeal in that case remains pending.

    https://www.tampabay.com/news/hillsb...-tampa-murder/

  7. #77
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2019
    Location
    Tennessee
    Posts
    7,316
    Post-conviction relief denied by the Florida Supreme Court.

    https://law.justia.com/cases/florida.../sc20-155.html
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

Page 8 of 8 FirstFirst ... 678

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •